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I have found that credit unions often give better rates than Ford or some of the larger banks. I believe I was told the Ford finance incentives don't apply to ford performance vehicles but don't know for sure. I have always found out what the total was beforehand and brought a check from the credit union. I borrowed just shy of $17,000 on my gen 3 at 1.79% for 24 months. I have only purchased high value retaining cars and had short payment terms so I had a lot of equity built up. Interest rates are high right now so I would say anything in the 3-4% range would be decent ( I haven't kept an eye on them so this may be off). I suspect if you have had your gen 2 for a couple of years you have equity which will count as your down payment. If you have no equity and no down payment it all comes down to debt to income ratio, income, and credit worthiness. I had a friend recently get denied on a loan for a new Denali Yukon due to no money down and dealer markup. He was trying to borrow more than the car was valued at the bank. With all of that being said I am a firm believer in 20% down minimum for any loan and no longer than 48 months. I do often get confused by people who don't use a car loan at all and take cash out of other investments. I would suspect most decent investments have a better return than the interest rates with good credit. With loans and payments everyone has a different view on the correct answer, but I would say don't over extend yourself on a car. At the end of the day its just a car and life has a lot more important things to focus on.
I have a great credit score and I make good money. I can afford the monthly payment. I just don’t like putting money down unless it’s more than 20% down. considering it gets divided into the months you get. And will only lower it about 200$ or 300$ a month. Rather use that money somewhere else. And I have a few trips coming up so I can’t put anything down at the moment. And you can’t really be upside down when you’re buying a raptor at msrp. And my trade in will cover the taxes fees and all that.
There’s a very lengthy thread discussing this. The search engine is everyone’s friend here!
